Home Distiller

I have a friend who makes shine and seems like sometimes I will get a quart and it taste a little different from the last run. I am currious of this when the shine sits in the glass quart jar for say maybe 2 weeks would the taste change?? or if he didn't constantly keep mixing the entire batch as he is filling up each quart jar would the alcohol and water be separating and I'd get that different taste each time?? I ask because it seems like it helps to mellow the taste some when I shake the jar really well before drinking it. What can yall tell me?? I have talked to him about if he cleans the still after each run and he does. He diluted the run down with nestle water which I am drinking at this very moment and it is the very best tasteing water.
I do know this run I have is several runs that he combined and diluted to 100 proof to keep the taste the same.

Any tips would be great so I can pass onto him.

Thanks
Chris

both, the commercial guys go threw great pains of mixing and matching to keep the taste and nose the same between batches.
it also can change , even if in glass,especially if it has some air space .

I have two quarts and when I went and took a sip from each again I notice one was good the other had a different smell.
He has always given it to me in a glass jar never plastic. The air space I would guess is about an inch from the lid of this quart jar

Thanks I'll pass this onto to him

age, cooking heat, run speed, how it is tempered all will change the flavor of the product.. Pretty tough to make it all the very same. I have gotten much better at it with my flute. I run it exactly the same every time with the very same results everytime.

KS very nice still, I like the video

Chris2626 wrote:KS very nice still, I like the video

Thanks man I have couple other video if you would like to check em out.

I would love to build you one if youre ever interested

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J19h5EWfj9M" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Yes I'd like to see the other videos, hey I'm gonna send you a pm here in a second

Chris2626 wrote:Yes I'd like to see the other videos, hey I'm gonna send you a pm here in a second

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J19h5EWfj9M" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Kentucky shinner wrote:

Chris2626 wrote:Yes I'd like to see the other videos, hey I'm gonna send you a pm here in a second

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J19h5EWfj9M" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Thats the same video you just posted above

Chris2626 wrote:

Kentucky shinner wrote:

Chris2626 wrote:Yes I'd like to see the other videos, hey I'm gonna send you a pm here in a second

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J19h5EWfj9M" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Thats the same video you just posted above

Sorry bout that

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljaiHHXW-B4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Thanks

getin proof out the kettle it diferent than takein proof out the likker barel.
what he done then mite not be what he done now.
will it hold a bead

so im tole

From what I understand is he will keep collecting from the run and testing the alcohol till it gets down to 100 proof then he shuts the still off and then pours everything together and dilutes it down with water till he gets about 100-105 proof.

I know he's useing a recipe off this website and it is the moonshine recipe that you use no yeast at all. I have read this recipe a few times and what it is saying to do is referment off the same batch of corn just each time you ferment take away or maybe it said add 3 more coffee contains of corn and sugar to get it fermenting again and to do this 4 or more times with teh sam batch of corn.
Let me ask this by doing this will say by the 4th or 5th time could you get a stale off taste from useing the same corn pretty much?? He's gonna do a fresh run this weekend with new corn and I will taste it from there and see what the difference is.

Will it hold a bead after it is diluted you're asking? I'm probally top unexperienced to understand this part but figured I'd post in the novice forum because yall may know more.

Thanks
Chris

if that is the type of recipe he is doing, then Id say each time this is"recycled" more and more of the grain is broken down and yes the taste is going to change.this is not like a cooked mash whereas x amount grain is used each time. so you are depending on haphazard conversion.and is not scientific.I'm not saying that a recipe like that can not make good stuff
but saying that it will not be consistent.

Dnderhead thank you yeah I think it will make good stuff but like you say each time it is being broken down. I have not made a run yet myself but it is nice to learn though still through him and yall. I'm trying to track down a thump keg which while I'm asking here I've got a 15.5 gallon beer keg and thought of useing like a 7.75 beer keg as a thump keg would this be a good size or to big??


Let me ask you think if this person has combined his runs all together could you then rerun them all again and clean it up and would it taste then better??

Thanks

UJSSM?

"Let me ask you think if this person has combined his runs all together could you then rerun them all again and clean it up and would it taste then better?? ""
yyyya. if you "strip" then run several runs, of course these are going to be the same. is it going to be better?
that only you can tell,you drink it. I tend to do that with whiskey. with fruit I usually do one slow run.BUT
the second run is still different than the first as I add the feints back. so I combine all .then barrel or bottle.
but then I usually do rather large ferments.then distilled all until finished.I look for "buys" on whatever I can fiend
here this time of year it is apples, so I I'm collecting enough to do 50-gal (220l) ferment,distill . then all will be
"mixed" in a barrel to age.
now,if I was going to do something like UJSSM id do enough "stripping"runs to fill a "corny" keg or several.
then rerun all of that.then if you wont you mix all of this before aging/bottling.

so,in conclusion,, the more you mix,the more consistent it is going to be.

ok I gotcha yeah it would make more sense then to make all those runs then combine everything to taste the same. I like your idea about apples that sounds very good. I'd really like to try strawberries because that is something I can get a ton of down here in the south and peaches as well..Now say when you do the apples are you adding yeast to it or no??

I''m have a dam hard time finding 2 inch pipe, though and what I find at lowes says it has to have a max temp of 100 degrees so I guess I will building it with one inch copper pipe..

Thanks
Chris

yes I'm going to use yeast.much more consistent than without,witch Iv done a lot of.
you just have so much more control.

ok because i heard sometimes the yeast can give you a off taste and such plus as it gets colder I have also heard you will need yeast to get it going. What kind of yeast do you prefer to use?

yeast can give off flavors with high temperature. not low. at low temperature they just slow down.
I have not pick out my yeast yet ,thanking maybe 1116.
for grain i use ale yeast.

Thanks, I clearly have alot to learn

If you go to a wine/beer home brewing/yeast site, some have "recommended" yeast that will give you a start.
wine yeast-for fruits and beer for grains- many "complement" the flavors ,some can be used for
problemes like low temp. fermenting.I do have a book from RED Star. it is available on net?.that has probably
over 100 different yeast.

If I could add my .02
I used to collect all my hearts, water down to 40% with RO water then bottle. In each 750ml bottle I put 1 cube of toasted hungarian oak and 2 peppercorns. I too had issues with consistency. I noticed some cubes worked better than others and this got worse as the cubes still left in the package got older. By the time I got to the end of the pack (6 months later) It was totally different from bottle to bottle. Yes I rewrapped the pack after taking cubes out each time.

So, since then I've been collecting hearts, leaving at whatever ABV they came off at and leaving them in a glass carboy. I drop in 1 cube per 750ml and let it age there. Not only does this make the whole batch consistent, but I can also age at barrel strength instead of bottle strength. Higher ABV does have better/more mellow flavour.

For yeast, I use bread yeast with UJSM.

Goinbroke2 thanks this guy wasn't adding any oak chips to his shine. I think it's from doing the recipe he did and cutting the recipe in half when maybe he should have done the entire recipe and spent about 12 hours running the entire batch and not recycling it or mayeb not as much anyway.

What I'm reading the oak barrels or oak chips you add is simply for color and to make it have more a mellow taste correct??
Where can I get the oak chips from? I've found a few places for the oak barrels.

thanks
Chris

Around here the wine&beer brew shops carry them. But I've also heard guys using the bbq or smokers chips sold by....crap, who was it...Jack Daniels?
And yes, they do mellow out the whisky and give it a smooth taste. It does colour it a bit but I've found it will taste woody before it gets enough colour in it to look like store bought whisky in a drink. When I mix mine with 7 up it is almost a clear drink I've mixed.